Video streaming platform Rumble has filed a lawsuit against California over a law forcing social media platforms to censor political speech.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), representing Rumble, filed the lawsuit on Wednesday.
The Daily Wire reports:
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division. Rumble is challenging California’s latest laws punishing speakers for certain political commentary, which California Governor Gavin Newsom has framed as measures that will combat the “harmful use of deepfakes in political ads and other content.”
California’s AB 2655, the “Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,” “deputizes” Rumble to restrict its user’s speech, ADF said in a release, while AB 2839, “Protecting Democracy Against Election Disinformation and Deepfakes,” uses vague standards to punish individuals posting political content about elections.
ADF Senior Counsel Phil Sechler told the outlet, “California’s war against political speech is censorship, plain and simple. We can’t trust the government to decide what is true in our online political debates.”
“Rumble is one of the few online voices stepping up against this trend of censorship while other platforms and sites cave to totalitarian regimes censoring Americans,” Sechler added. “Rumble is standing for free speech even when it is hard. Other online platforms and media companies must see these laws for what they are — a threat to their existence.”
Chris Pavlovski, Chairman and CEO of Rumble, added, “The very thought of the government judging the content of political speech, and then deciding whether it should be permitted, censored, or eliminated altogether is about the most chilling thing you could imagine.”
“Rumble will always celebrate freedom and support creative independence, so we’re delighted to work with ADF to help protect lawful online expression,” Pavlovski added.
The bill was introduced and subsequently signed into law after Governor Gavin Newsom complained about a deepfake parody video of Kamala Harris.
